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HX64096742 
R154.M49So1  1921  Memotial  number  for 


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Soc.  for  experimental  biology  and  medicine. 

New  Tork.  i,,  -,.        i 

...Memorial  number  for  Samuel  James  Meltzer 


Columbia  (Bnitersittp 

intlieCitpofBmlflrk 

THE  LIBRARIES 


iHebital  Hibvavv 


MEMORIAL   NUMBER 

FOR 

SAMUEL  JAMES  MELTZER,  M.D. 

FOUNDER 

AND 

FIRST  PRESIDENT 

OF  THE 

SOCIETY  FOR  EXPERIMENTAL  BIOLOGY  AND  MEDIQNE 


ADDRESSES  GIVEN  AT  A  MEETING  OF  THE 
SOQETY  HELD  AT  THE  ACADEMY  OF  MEDICINE, 
JANUARY  6,  1921,  IN  ASSOCIATION  WITH  THE 
NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  MEDiaNE  AND  THE 
HARVEY  SOOETY  OF  NEW  YORK 


NEW  YORK 
1921 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Open  Knowledge  Commons 


http://www.archive.org/details/memorialnumberfoOOsoci 


MEMORIAL   NUMBER 

FOR 

SAMUEL  JAMES  MELTZER,  M.D. 

FOUNDER 

AND 

FIRST  PRESIDENT 

OF  THE 

SOCIETY  FOR  EXPERIMENTAL  BIOLOGY  AND  MEDICINE 


ADDRESSES  GIVEN  AT  A  MEETING  OF  THE 
SOQETY  HELD  AT  THE  ACADEMY  OF  MEDICINE, 
JANUARY  6,  1921,  IN  ASSOCIATION  WITH  THE 
NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  MEDICINE  AND  THE 
HARVEY  SOaETY  OF  NEW  YORK 


NEW  YORK 
1921 


THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTING  COMPANY 
LANC^STEFt,  PA. 


Minute  expressive  of  the  sentiment  of  the  Society  for  Experimental 
Biology  and  Medicine  on  the  death  of  Samuel  James  Meltzer. 

The  Society  for  Experimental  Biology  and  Medicine  has  been 
deeply  moved  by  the  death  of  its  revered  founder,  Samuel  James 
Meltzer,  who,  from  the  beginning  of  its  career,  was  the  Society's 
devoted  mentor  and  the  personification  of  the  Society's  spirit  and 
ideal. 

Meltzer  was  eminent  for  many  important  contributions  to 
biology,  physiology,  pathology,  pharmacology,  and  scientific 
medicine.  Most  of  his  contributions  to  the  advancement  of 
science,  after  the  Society's  establishment  in  1903,  were  made 
originally  at  meetings  of  this  Society. 

He  was  a  distinguished  promoter  of  the  application  of  ex- 
perimental methods  to  research  in  American  medicine.  His 
foundation  of  this  Society  was  a  particularly  important  means  of 
accelerating  that  significant  development  in  this  country. 

He  was  an  enthusiastic  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  zealous 
research,  and  an  ardent  exponent  of  idealism  in  science  and  in 
service. 

He  inspired  fidelity  to  truth.  He  stimulated  achievement 
in  research.  By  example  and  precept,  in  the  meetings  of  this 
Society  for  seventeen  years,  Meltzer  appealed  always  to  the  best 
in  every  member.  He  quickened,  in  the  oldest  as  well  as  in  the 
youngest  members,  the  impulses  of  emulation  of  his  sterling 
qualities  as  a  man,  as  an  investigator,  and  as  a  servant  of  truth  in 
every  relation,  that  such  attributes  as  his  invariably  elicit  when 
radiated  from  an  unselfish  leader. 

Meltzer's  memory  will  be  a  continuing  inspiration  to  the 
members  of  this  society.  Proceeding  actively  along  the  path  his 
faithful  leadership  opened  to  us,  and  growing  steadily  in  useful, 
ness  and  strength,  our  Society  will  be  not  only  an  enduring  monu. 
ment  but  also  a  living  testimonial  to  his  achievements,  his  influ- 
ence, and  his  character. 

Deeply  conscious  of  the  personal  loss  that  Meltzer's  death 
involves  for  each  of  us,  but  earnestly  grateful  for  the  abiding 

3 


4  Memorial  Number. 

value  of  his  unbroken  influence  in  our  hearts,  we  dedicate  our- 
selves anew  to  the  promotion  of  the  principles  that  Meltzer 
exemplified;  and  we  are  more  firmly  resolved  than  ever  so  to  sup- 
port and  cherish  this  society  that  it  may  continue  to  be  a  worthy 
agency,  of  cumulative  effectiveness-as  Meltzer  projected  it- 
for  the  active  advancement  of  science,  for  the  exaltation  of  truth, 
and  for  the  ennoblement  of  service,  in  biology  and  medicme. 

Presented  by  the  council  and  approved  by  the  Society,  at 
the  one  hundred  and  fourteenth  meeting,  held  on  March  i6,  1921. 


CONTENTS. 

Page 

Dr.  Meltzer's  relation  to  the  Society  for  Experimental  Biology 

and  Medicine.     Holmes  C.  Jackson,  Secretary 7-9 

Addresses  by  members  of  the  Society  at  the  Memorial  meeting 

held  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine  January  6,  192 1. 

Memorial  remarks  by  the  President,  Gary  N.  Calkins 10 

A  tribute  to  Dr.  Meltzer's  life  and  services. 

George  B.  Wallace 1 1-16 

Dr.  Meltzer's  message  to  the  present  generation. 

Phoebus  A.  Levene 17—19 

Personal  reminiscences  of  Dr.  Meltzer.     Graham  Lusk. .  20—24 
Dr.  Meltzer's  influence  on  American  Physiology. 

William  H.  Howell 25-36 

Dr.  Meltzer's  place   in  American  Medicine. 

William  H.  Welch 37-42 


Dr.  Meltzer's  relation  to  the  Society  for  Experimental  Biology 
and  Medicine. 

By  HOLMES  C.   JACKSON,  Secretary. 

After  twenty  years  of  active  investigation  in  experimental 
medicine  and  allied  branches,  it  was  quite  natural  that  the  sci- 
entific ideals  of  Dr.  S.  J.  Meltzer  should  express  themselves  in 
a  desire  to  form  a  society  whose  main  purpose  lay  in  stimulating 
experimental  work  among  the  younger  men  entering  the  fields 
of  biology  and  medicine. 

Accordingly,  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Graham  Lusk,  Dr. 
Meltzer  sent  an  invitation  to  eight  New  York  investigators  to 
meet  at  Dr.  Lusk's  house  on  January  17,  1903,  for  the  purpose  of 
estabhshing  a  "Society  for  Experimental  Biology  and  Medicine." 
This  preliminary  conference  unanimously  endorsed  Dr.  Meltzer's 
views  and  appointed  a  committee  for  permanent  organization. 
The  charter  membership  was  increased  to  nineteen  and  the  first 
meeting  occurred  on  February  25,  1903,  in  the  laboratory  of  physi- 
ological chemistry.  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  Columbia 
University.  Dr.  Meltzer  became  the  first  president  of  the  new 
society  and  served  two  years. 

Dr.  Meltzer's  first  thought  was  to  have  the  scientific  program 
of  the  meetings  presented  in  the  form  of  demonstrations,  and 
this  idea  was  carried  out  during  the  first  two  years.  As  the 
society  grew  and  the  number  of  papers  read  at  the  meetings  be- 
came greater,  it  was  found  necessary  to  alter  somewhat  this  ori- 
ginal intention  so  as  to  allow  papers  to  be  read  by  title. 

During  the  first  three  years,  the  reports  of  the  meetings  of  the 
Society  appeared  in  Science  and  in  American  Medicine.  In 
June,  1906,  the  decision  was  reached  to  publish  the  Proceedings 
as  a  separate  journal,  one  number  appearing  after  each  meeting. 
The  Proceedings  has  now  established  itself  as  a  well-recognized 
and  much  sought  for  avenue  of  early  publication  for  preliminary 
communications  with  an  edition  of  700  copies  reaching  all  parts  of 
the  world.     The  meetings  of  the  society  have  been  held  monthly 

7 


8  Memorial  Number. 

each  year  from  October  to  May  inclusive,  at  the  various  educa- 
tional institutions  in  New  York  City.  In  several  instances  out 
of  town  meetings  in  May  were  arranged  at  New  Haven,  Connecti- 
cut and  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  New  York. 

Dr.  Meltzer  was  a  constant  attendant  at  these  meetings, 
adding  immensely  to  their  value  by  kindly  discussion  of  the  papers 
and  by  his  clear  cut  and  pointed  criticism.  His  knowledge  of 
literature  was  surprisingly  accurate,  diverse  and  extensive.  He 
was  a  great  reader  and  his  retentive  memory  held  all  that  came  to 
his  mind. 

As  a  member  of  the  council  he  gave  much  of  his  thought  and 
energy  to  the  various  changes  in  policy  which  became  necessary 
from  time  to  time.  To  his  mind  the  society  functioned  as  a 
stimulus  to  scientific  effort  for  the  younger  men  in  the  various 
fields  of  biology  and  medicine.  With  this  in  view,  he  suggested  the 
formation  of  branch  societies  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Two  of  these  branches,  one  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  one  in  Minne- 
sota, now  meet  every  two  months.  Papers  read  at  these  meetings 
are  published  in  the  Proceedings.  Dr.  Meltzer  lived  to  see  the 
membership  of  the  society  become  world  wide  and  grow  from  fifty- 
six  at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  to  four  hundred  and  ten  in  1920. 
Membership  in  the  society  is  now  recognized  as  a  mark  of  scientific 
attainment;  eligibility  requires  the  publication  of  a  "meritorious 
original  investigation  in  biology  and  medicine  by  the  experimental 
method." 

Dr.  Meltzer's  death  occurred  on  November  7,  1920.  The 
funeral  took  place  on  November  10  from  the  Ethical  Cultural 
Church,  at  which  Dr.  Simon  Flexner  and  Dr.  John  Lovejoy 
Eliot  delivered  memorial  addresses. 

At  the  December  meeting  of  the  society  it  was  voted  to  hold 
a  memorial  meeting  at  the  Academy  of  Medicine  in  association  with 
the  Academy  and  the  Harvey  Society  of  New  York.  This  meeting 
was  largely  attended;  the  president  of  the  Society,  Dr.  Calkins, 
presided  and  addresses  were  given  by  Dr.  George  B.  Wallace, 
Dr.  Phoebus  Levene,  Dr.  Graham  Lusk,  Dr.  William  H.  Howell 
and  Dr.  William  H.  Welch.  These  addresses  are  printed  in  this 
memorial  number  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  society. 

Dr.  Meltzer's  example  was  a  constant  stimulus  to  the  younger 


n 


Minute  on  Death  of  Samuel  James  Meltzer.  9 

generation  with  which  he  came  into  contact,  and  the  society  feels 
deeply  the  loss  which  it  has  sustained  by  his  death.  The  hand 
which  guided  the  destiny  of  the  society  in  the  selection  of  its 
officers  and  members  is  no  longer  active.  It  is  for  others  who  re- 
main to  take  up  his  task  in  holding  fast  the  ideals  which  he  im- 
pressed by  his  personality  upon  the  society  and  its  members. 


Memorial  remarks. 

By  GARY  N.  CALKINS,  President. 

Nearly  eighteen  years  ago,  or  to  be  more  precise,  on  the  17th  of 
January,  1903,  a  small  group  of  men,  on  the  invitation  of  Dr. 
Meltzer,  met  to  discuss  the  formation  of  a  new  society  for  the 
purpose  of  encouraging  experimental  work  in  the  biological  sci- 
ences. The  following  month  the  Society  for  Experimental  Biology 
and  Medicine  was  launched  with  19  charter  members,  and  Dr. 
Meltzer  was  its  first  president. 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  and  lovable  traits  of  Dr.  Meltzer 
was  his  interest  in  young  men  and  their  progress  in  science.  He 
saw  in  the  National  Academy  a  meeting  place  for  those  who  had 
reached  established  heights  in  research  and  he  liked  to  think  of  his 
new  society  as  furnishing  an  opportunity  for  young  men,  fledglings 
in  science,  to  try  their  wings.  Always  helpful  to  them  with  advice 
and  by  example,  and  always  mindful  of  the  highest  ideals  of 
scientific  research  he  not  only  fathered  the  new  society  but  he 
nursed  it  through  its  period  of  youth  and  watched  its  later  growth 
with  a  jealous  eye  to  see  that  the  high  standard  of  aims  and  ideals 
which  he  had  set  for  it  were  maintained. 

We  meet  tonight  to  do  honor  to  his  memory.  The  young 
society  has  grown  and  we  believe,  as  we  like  to  think,  that  his 
scientific  spirit  extends  today  throughout  the  entire  membership 
of  nearly  four  hundred  active  workers,  and  we  like  to  think  that 
the  nickname  which  the  Society  early  received — the  Meltzer 
Verein — is  synonymous  with  scientific  idealism. 

In  recognition  of  this  scientific  spirit,  and  in  respect  to  the 
memory  of  Dr.  Meltzer,  I  am  going  to  ask  the  members  of  the 
Society,  and  all  others  present  who  think  as  we  do,  to  rise  and 
remain  standing  for  a  few  seconds. 


A  tribute  to  Dr.  Meltzer's  life  and  services. 

By   GEORGE  B.   WALLACE. 

As  the  first  speaker  this  evening  and  one  who,  through  a 
friendship  of  some  twenty  years,  has  been  largely  influenced  by 
Dr.  Meltzer,  I  may  be  permitted  to  sketch  in  a  somewhat  general 
way  those  characteristics  of  his  life  and  work  which  have  espe- 
cially impressed  me. 

My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Meltzer  began  in  the  spring  of 
1902.  At  that  time  Professor  Cushny  was  passing  through  New 
York  and  together  we  went,  on  what  seemed  to  me  a  pilgrimage, 
to  call  on  Dr.  Meltzer  at  his  house  in  Harlem.  The  visit  stands 
out  very  clearly  in  my  memory.  Dr.  Meltzer  was  then  in  his 
fifty-first  year,  in  the  full  vigor  of  life  and  carrying  on  an  extensive 
hospital  and  private  practice.  The  conversation,  however,  was 
not  concerning  practice,  but  mainly  on  research  work,  his  own  and 
that  of  others.  I  recall  how  greatly  I  was  impressed  by  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  scientific  work  being  carried  on,  by  the  clearness  and 
fairness  of  his  criticisms,  and  by  his  general  enthusiasm  and 
optimism.  He  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  state  of  medical 
science  in  New  York  and  deplored  the  isolation  of  the  individual 
workers  and  their  failure  to  meet  at  frequent  intervals  to  present 
their  work  and  exchange  their  ideas.  Apparently  this  had  been 
in  his  mind  for  some  time,  for  he  outlined  a  plan  for  the  formation 
of  a  society  which  should  include  all  the  active  workers  in  the 
biological  and  medical  sciences.  In  the  following  year  Dr. 
Meltzer  put  this  plan  into  effect,  and  with  the  cooperation  of  a 
small  group  of  his  friends,  the  Society  for  Experimental  Biology 
and  Medicine  was  formally  launched. 

One  of  the  last  occasions  on  which  I  saw  Dr.  Meltzer  was  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Society  held  last  spring  in  New  Haven.  He  was 
then  in  his  seventieth  year  and  in  miserable  health,  but  his  en- 
thusiasm was  as  great  as  it  had  been  twenty  years  earlier,  and  he 
had  made  what  to  him  must  have  been  a  long  and  trying  journey 
because  of  the  intense  interest  he  had  in  the  society  and  in  sci- 


12  Memorial  Number. 

entific  work.  As  we  walked  very  slowly  and  carefully  back  to 
his  hotel,  he  told  briefly  and  rather  casually  of  the  bad  attack  he 
had  had  the  previous  night,  for  which  he  had  been  obliged  to  call 
in  a  local  physician,  and  then  went  on  to  describe  the  excellence 
of  the  meeting,  the  great  field  covered  by  the  papers,  and  the 
fine  spirit  which  was  prompting  the  research  work  done  in  this 
country.  This  spirit,  which  he  was  so  quick  to  see  and  appreciate 
in  others,  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  especially  exemplified  in  his 
own  life  and  work,  and  one  feels  in  looking  over  his  career,  that 
it  must  have  been  the  great  driving  force  throughout  his  whole 
life,  which  made  him  indifferent  to  obstacles,  difficulties  and 
physical  infirmities,  great  enough  to  daunt  the  ordinary  man. 

It  can  be  truly  said  of  Meltzer  that  he  was  a  man  who  loved 
and  pursued  knowledge  for  its  own  sake.  This  was  an  inherent 
characteristic.  When  he  entered  the  University  of  Berlin  in  1876, 
it  was  the  study  of  philosophy  that  attracted  him  particularly  and 
it  is  probable  that  had  his  financial  prospects  been  more  favorable, 
he  would  have  kept  himself  within  this  field,  stimulated  as  he  was 
by  such  eminent  teachers  as  Paulson  and  Erdman,  and  by  his 
quickly  formed  friendship  with  Steinthal.  Moved  by  financial 
considerations,  however,  he  entered  at  this  time  into  the  study  of 
medicine.  This  was  a  day  of  great  teachers  and  the  University 
of  Berlin  was  unusually  fortunate  in  this  respect.  It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  the  eager  mind  of  young  Meltzer  must  have  been 
stimulated  and  indelibly  impressed  by  contact  with  such  masters 
as  Du  Bois-Reymond,  Virchow,  Leyden  and  Frerichs.  It  was 
at  this  time  also  that  he  began  a  friendship  which  influenced  all 
his  later  life,  namely,  that  with  Kronecker.  With  his  attractive, 
friendly  personality,  his  thorough  training  in  physiology  under 
Helmholtz  and  Ludwig,  and  in  medicine  under  Traube,  his  de- 
votion to  experimental  science,  Kronecker  was  the  ideal  guide  and 
friend  for  the  younger  man  just  beginning  a  scientific  career. 

Shortly  after  his  graduation,  Meltzer  came  to  New  York  and 
began  the  practice  of  medicine.  He  chose  America,  after  careful 
deliberation,  because  its  democratic  form  of  government  especially 
appealed  to  him.  Previous  to  his  settling  in  New  York,  he  made 
several  trans-Atlantic  trips  as  a  ship's  surgeon,  and  his  determina- 
tion is  shown  by  the  fact  that,  in  spite  of  his  being  a  poor  sailor 


Dr.  Meltzer's  Life  and  Services.  13 

and  seasick  during  the  greater  part  of  each  trip,  he  kept  this  posi- 
tion and  carried  on  its  duties  for  some  time. 

With  the  environment  in  which  his  medical  education  began, 
it  is  small  wonder  that  Meltzer's  interest  turned  to  research  work. 
What  especially  impressed  him  from  the  beginning  was  first,  the 
necessity  of  careful  observation  and  thoroughness  in  work,  and, 
second,  the  importance  of  facts  rather  than  theories.  Those  who 
have  heard  Meltzer  present  experimental  work  will,  I  think,  recall 
numerous  instances  in  which,  when  pressed  for  an  explanation  of 
his  results,  he  has  replied  that  although  he  had  a  theory,  it  was 
only  the  fact  itself  that  he  wished  to  bring  out. 

He  began  his  research  work  in  Kronecker's  laboratory  while 
yet  a  medical  student.  This  work  was  on  the  swallowing  mechan- 
ism and  he  himself  was  the  subject  of  experimentation.  He 
has  given  a  graphic  account  of  the  discomforts  endured  during  these 
experiments,  for  he  was  obliged  to  sit  for  hours  with  two  stomach 
tubes,  with  rubber  balloons  attached  to  their  ends,  inserted  into 
his  esophagus.  There  is  an  interesting  side-light  connected  with 
this  work.  While  carrying  on  his  experiment  one  day,  the  labora- 
tory was  unexpectedly  visited  by  the  Prussian  Minister  of  Educa- 
tion, who  inspected  the  laboratory  and  Meltzer  in  particular.  The 
explanation  of  the  visit  came  later.  An  an ti- vivisection  bill  had 
been  proposed,  backed  by  the  statement  that  experimentalists 
would  not  dream  of  inflicting  on  themselves  the  discomforts  to 
which  they  were  subjecting  animals.  The  Minister  was  able  to 
report  that  he  himself  had  just  witnessed  a  voluntary  experiment 
on  a  human  being  which  was  attended  by  the  greatest  discomfort 
and  he  ventured  the  assertion  that  none  of  those  who  were  so 
earnestly  advocating  the  bill  would  be  willing  to  put  themselves 
in  the  place  of  the  student  in  physiology.  It  may  be  added  that 
the  bill  was  defeated. 

It  was  while  engaged  in  this  work  that  an  idea  was  brought 
out,  upon  which  most  of  his  subsequent  work  centered.  This  was 
the  phenomenon  of  inhibition.  He  had  obtained  a  record  of  a 
single  swallowing  movement,  but  found  that  with  successive 
repeated  swallowings  the  record  changed  completely,  in  that  the 
contractions  failed  to  appear.  In  his  perplexity  he  appealed  to 
his  friend  Kronecker,  who  suggested  the  possibility  of  inhibition. 


14  Memorial  Number. 

This  possibility  was  eagerly  seized  upon  and  developed.  It  came 
in  time  to  be  the  central  idea  upon  which  a  large  part  of  his  re- 
search work  was  based.  Briefly  stated,  his  conception  was  that 
inhibition  is  as  essential  a  process  in  cellular  activity  as  is  excita- 
tion. All  living  tissues  are  irritable,  i.e.,  they  respond  to  stimula- 
tion with  a  vital  reaction.  This  reaction  can  be  either  the  mani- 
festations of  their  specific  activity,  excitation,  or  it  can  be  an  in- 
hibition of  an  existing  activity.  Absolute  rest  occurs  when  both 
opposing  energies  are  exactly  even  and  the  difference  between 
activity  and  rest  consists  only  in  the  fact  that  excitation  predomi- 
nates during  activity  and  inhibition  during  rest.  To  support  his 
conception,  Meltzer  turned  his  attention  to  experimental  proof. 
His  studies  on  respiratory  function  strengthened  his  belief,  as  did 
his  work  on  the  gastro-intestinal  tract.  Later  in  his  search  for  an 
agent  causing  inhibition,  he  discovered  the  depressing  properties  of 
magnesium  and  found  in  this  substance  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
representative  of  inhibition  in  the  animal  body.  His  numerous 
papers  on  the  action  of  magnesium  salts  are  too  well  known  to 
need  review. 

It  may  be  noted  here  that  owing  to  his  wide  knowledge  gained 
through  years  of  practice,  he  endeavored  whenever  possible  to 
utilize  his  experimental  facts  for  the  service  of  humanity.  Thus 
he  pointed  out  and  devised  a  technic  for  the  use  of  magnesium  sul- 
phate as  a  general  anesthetic  and  in  the  treatment  of  tetanus.  He 
described  its  advantages  in  the  treatment  of  burns  and  its  applica- 
tion in  the  diagnosis  of  gall  bladder  disease.  Suggested  by  the 
magnesium  work,  he  turned  his  attention  to  artificial  respiration 
and  devised  his  method  of  intratracheal  insufflation,  a  method 
notable  for  its  simplicity,  efi^ectiveness  and  wide  application. 

In  Meltzer's  research  work  in  general  there  is  seen  a  breadth 
of  view  and  range  of  subjects  that  is  remarkable.  In  his  earlier 
publications,  as  might  be  expected,  there  are  found  a  number 
of  papers  on  clinical  subjects.  Thus  he  wrote  on  the  auscultatory 
sounds  of  swallowing,  subphrenic  abscess,  congenital  hypertrophic 
stenosis  of  the  pylorus,  otitis  media  and  earache  in  pneumonia, 
paratyphoid,  mechanical  relations  in  the  occurrence  of  pneumonia, 
myelopathic  albuminosuria,  gastralgia,  intestinal  colic  and  colic 
in  general.  These  papers  all  show  a  keen  observation  and  careful 
interpretation  of  facts. 


Dr.  Meltzer's  Life  and  Services.  15 

From  the  outset,  however,  his  interests  were  in  purely  sci- 
entific subjects.  His  first  pubHcation  on  the  swallowing  mechan- 
ism, with  Kronecker,  has  been  mentioned.  Shortly  after  his 
arrival  in  this  country  he  published  with  Professor  Welch  a  paper 
on  the  behavior  of  the  red  blood  corpuscles  when  shaken  with  in- 
different substances.  In  this  connection  he  was  again  fortunate, 
in  forming  an  enduring  friendship  with  Professor  Welch,  a  friend- 
ship based  on  mutual  respect  and  devotion  to  science.  This  paper 
was  the  forerunner  of  a  large  number  on  physiological  subjects,  too 
numerous  to  mention  individually,  which  set  a  standard  for  Ameri- 
can work  and  served  as  a  stimulus  for  a  great  quantity  of  work  by 
others. 

There  is  another  side  of  Meltzer's  career  which  should  receive 
special  recognition.  I  refer  to  his  part  in  shaping  and  hastening 
the  development  of  scientific  medical  work  in  this  country.  Al- 
though the  Society  for  Experimental  Biology  and  Medicine,  known 
affectionately  as  the  "  Meltzer  Verein,"  held  his  particular  interest, 
he  was  a  leading  figure  in  the  organization  of  most  of  the  present 
day  American  societies  for  medical  research.  His  advice  in 
matters  of  organization,  policy,  selection  of  members,  was  freely 
given  and  its  value  recognized.  Of  a  highly  altruistic  spirit,  his 
large  experience  and  good  judgment  kept  him  from  being  im- 
practical. His  progressive  point  of  view  in  all  these  matters  is 
clear  to  one  who  reads  his  addresses,  generally  presidential  ones. 
I  quote  as  an  example,  extracts  from  his  presidential  address  de- 
livered before  the  Association  of  American  Physicians.  "The 
best  physician  of  the  future  will  be  the  man  who  has  spent  years  in 
studying  the  methods  employed  in  acquiring  knowledge  in  the 
pure  medical  sciences  and  then  in  applying  all  his  mental  energies 
to  a  broad  study  of  disease."  "Clinical  medicine  and  medical 
sciences  must  be  brought  closely  together  and  work  in  harmony; 
that  will  assure  a  steady  progress  of  the  science  and  practice  of 
medicine."  "Some  older  members  complain  that  the  papers 
presented  at  the  meetings  are  getting  above  their  heads.  While 
this  may  be  a  fact,  it  cannot  be  made  the  basis  of  a  complaint. 
The  papers  of  the  program  of  our  annual  meeting  reflect  in  general 
the  character  of  the  medical  studies  which  prevail  at  that  period." 

Dr.  Meltzer  was  especially  instrumental  in  bringing  about 


i6  Memorial  Number. 

the  formation  of  the  American  Society  for  Clinical  Investigation, 
a  society  made  up  of  younger  men,  active  workers  in  medicine. 
This  society  is  unique  among  medical  organizations,  in  the  char- 
acter and  ability  of  its  members  and  the  scientific  excellence  of 
their  work.  It  is  unquestionably  one  of  the  most  important  in- 
fluences in  this  country  in  the  progress  of  clinical  medicine.  His 
address  at  the  first  meeting  of  this  society  on  "The  Science  of 
Clinical  Medicine,  what  it  ought  to  be  and  the  men  to  uphold  it" 
is  an  especially  inspiring  one,  and  sets  forth  fully  the  ideals  for 
which  he  was  fighting.  Again  a  paper  on  "Headship  and  Or- 
ganization of  Clinical  Departments"  shows  his  conception  of 
what  the  organization  of  a  modern  department  of  medicine  should 
be.  Through  all  these  addresses  one  can  find  proof  of  his  firm 
conviction  of  the  successful  future  of  medicine  in  this  country. 
He  had  full  faith  in  the  new  generation,  with  its  education  and 
scientific  training. 

I  take  the  opportunity  of  quoting  here  a  letter,  recently  re- 
ceived from  Dr.  Victor  C.  Vaughan,  which  reflects  the  general 
regard  in  which  Dr.  Meltzer  was  held  by  men  of  his  own  type. 
"  I  know  of  no  one  within  my  wide  circle  of  acquaintances  who  has 
more  fully  filled  my  ideal  of  a  physician  and  investigator  than  Dr. 
Meltzer.  Although  busy  in  the  practice  of  medicine  for  many 
years,  he  always  found  time  to  do  research,  and  this  was  of  the 
highest  kind.  Personally  I  loved  him  like  a  brother.  Profes- 
sionally I  appreciated  his  great  service  to  science  and  to  his 
profession."  ■• 

And  again,  I  quote  from  a  letter  received  from  Professor  Yan- 
dell  Henderson:  "  I  believe  that  I  can,  as  well  as  almost  any  one, 
testify  from  my  own  experience  in  scientific  discussion  with  Dr. 
Meltzer,  to  the  value  of  his  constructive  criticism.  To  excite 
comment  on  one's  work  from  Dr.  Meltzer  was  to  receive  at  once 
stimulus,  guidance,  encouragement,  and  warning  against  prema- 
ture conclusion.  The  function  of  critic  which  he  filled  for  twenty 
years  or  more  was  one  of  his  most  valuable  services." 

In  concluding,  I  feel  that  I  can  speak  for  the  large  group  of 
men,  young  when  Meltzer  was  in  his  full  maturity,  who  looked 
on  him  as  a  sympathetic  friend,  a  trusted  adviser,  an  exponent 
of  that  spirit  and  accomplishment  for  which  we  are  all  striving. 


Dr.  Meltzer's  message  to  the  present  generation. 

By   PHOEBUS  A.   LEVENE. 

I  am  here  tonight  to  speak  not  to  the  old  friends  of  Dr.  Meltzer 
who  with  him  led  the  medical  profession  through  the  thorny  walks 
of  a  primitive  lowland  to  its  present  heights  of  splendor,  I  am  here 
not  to  revive  old  memories  so  that  some  may  again  pass  through 
the  joys  of  their  youth.  I  have  come  to  speak  to  the  younger, 
to  deliver  to  them  the  message  bequeathed  by  the  older.  Dr.  S.  J. 
Meltzer.  And  in  order  that  they  may  receive  the  message  I  shall 
attempt  to  draw  a  sketch  of  the  departed  friend  and  master,  not 
one  portraying  every  detail  of  his  character,  not  one  bringing  out 
every  feature  of  his  activities,  but  an  impression  portrait  such  as 
the  young  may  hold  before  them  while  their  life  and  ideals  are 
still  in  their  shaping.  I  shall  throw  the  light  on  the  side  of  the 
man  that  is  the  expression  of  the  great  ideal  of  service  to  humanity. 
The  form  of  service  is  truly  an  incident. 

It  so  happened  that  Dr.  Meltzer  was  born  in  Russia,  a  country 
of  irrepressible  idealism;  it  so  happened  that  he  was  born  of  a 
race  noted  for  its  devotion  to  whatever  it  chooses  to  make  the 
object  of  its  devotion;  it  so  happened  that  he  was  born  in  a  small 
modest  town  that  gave  birth  to  no  bankers  and  to  no  magnates, 
but  to  many  men  of  learning.  Unlikely  as  this  may  seem,  learn- 
ing was  the  object  of  veneration  in  Dr.  Meltzer's  birthplace  and 
learning  became  Dr.  Meltzer's  ideal. 

In  search  of  learning  Dr.  Meltzer  migrated  to  Berlin,  where  he 
came  under  the  influence  of  the  great  masters  of  medicine,  of 
physiology,  and  of  philosophy.  In  the  atmosphere  of  these  men 
his  character  matured,  his  ideals  took  concrete  shape.  Here  the 
decision  was  formed  that  medicine  was  to  become  the  medium 
of  his  service  to  man  and  here  he  chose  physiology  as  the  medium 
of  self-perfection  and  of  personal  enjoinment.  So  earnestly  did 
Dr.  Meltzer  apply  himself  to  the  task  of  mastering  his  medium 
that  soon  he  gained  not  only  appreciation  but  also  the  friendship 
and  affection  of  those  who  had  been  his  masters;  and  then,  still 


1 8  Memorial  Number 

early  in  his  career,  he  was  offered  an  opportunity  of  an  academic 
position  in  BerHn.  However,  circumstances,  among  which  not 
the  least  was  an  impelling  desire  for  broader  activity,  induced  him 
to  decline  the  offer  and  again  to  migrate,  and  this  time  to  our  land. 

With  a  background  of  Virchow,  Helmholtz,  DuBois  Reymond, 
Koch,  Frerichs,  etc..  Dr.  Meltzer  entered  New  York  and  on  his 
arrival  the  contrast  of  past  and  present  was  not  very  cheering. 
Medical  schools  we  had,  but  seats  of  learning  they  were  not. 
Theory  was  not  held  in  great  repute,  the  largest  space  given  to  the 
laboratory  was  that  occupied  in  announcements.  On  the  school 
premises  it  was  discovered  with  difficulty.  The  material  the 
schools  turned  out  was  not  of  very  high  grade,  but,  such  as  it  was, 
it  formed  the  medical  world  which  young  Meltzer  was  about  to 
join.  Here  to  excel  and  to  turn  personal  superiority  into  material 
gain  was  not  difificult.  Many  men  to  whom  Fortune  was  as 
friendly  as  to  Dr.  Meltzer,  and  who  obtained  the  advantages  of 
a  European  training,  exploited  their  advantages  successfully. 
Such  success  did  not  tempt  Dr.  Meltzer.  On  the  contrary,  from 
the  day  of  his  landing  in  New  York  his  life  was  dedicated  to  the 
education  and  the  advancement  of  the  mental  horizon  of  the 
American  physician.  There  were  other  contemporaries  who 
espoused  the  same  cause,  some  were  of  American  birth  and  had 
the  advantages  of  a  European  education,  and  others  of  foreign 
birth  and  education.  Prominent  among  them  stand  out  Welch, 
Prudden,  Janeway,  Jacobi,  Knopf  in  this  city,  again  Welch  and 
Osier  in  Baltimore,  and  others  in  other  cities. 

But  among  all  these  leaders  who  brought  American  medicine  to 
its  present  high  stand  the  place  of  Dr.  Meltzer  was  from  first  to 
last  unique. 

To  define  his  place  among  other  leaders  briefly,  one  would  say 
it  was  more  democratic.  While  others  worked  for  the  improve- 
ment of  medical  school  or  hospital.  Dr.  Meltzer  chose  for  his  task 
the  education  of  the  rank  and  file  of  M.D.'s,  whether  they  were 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine  or  in  the  teaching  of  it.  Again 
to  borrow  a  term  from  the  political  vocabulary.  Dr.  Meltzer 
became  the  leader  of  the  progressive  opposition  minority  against 
the  conservative  majority.  In  order  to  exert  his  influence  with 
the  utmost  efficiency,  Dr.  Meltzer  chose  to  preserve  his  personal 


Message  to  the  Present  Generation.  19 

independence  and  because  of  this  for  many  years  he  remained  un- 
afiSliated  with  school  or  hospital.  Above  that  of  personal  in- 
dependence, Meltzer  held  the  necessity  for  leadership  of  one's 
continuous  participation  in  active  experimental  investigation. 
Other  leaders,  whether  educators  or  practitioners,  early  abandoned 
their  habit  of  research.  Over  them  Meltzer  had  an  advantage. 
He  also  possessed  the  advantage  of  an  indomitable  craving  for 
reading,  and  the  advantage  of  a  phenomenal  memory. 

Thus  it  happened  that  unaffiliated,  holding  no  official  position, 
Dr.  Meltzer  became  the  feared  critic  and  the  recognized  leader 
and  teacher  both  among  the  men  of  science  and  the  men  of  prac- 
tice. And  often  when  new  ideas  and  new  discoveries  in  medicine 
had  to  be  introduced  to  the  American  public.  Dr.  Meltzer  was 
called  upon  to  perform  the  task — ^and  he  always  lived  up  to  the 
occasion.  His  success  in  this  direction  lay  in  the  fact  that  he 
never  presented  a  subject  before  he  assimilated  it  by  experiment 
in  the  laboratory.  Thus  he  labored  and  toiled  to  attain  self- 
perfection  and  through  self-perfection  to  aid  and  teach  those 
around  him. 

Dr.  Meltzer  was  one  of  the  few  men  favored  by  Fortune  who 
lived  to  see  his  efiforts  crowned  with  success.  While  his  mental 
and  physical  energies  were  still  in  full  vigor,  the  standard  of  the 
medical  profession  of  America  rose  to  unexpected  heights.  Dr. 
Meltzer  could  then  devote  more  of  his  energies  to  his  personal 
joys,  things  nearest  to  his  heart — they  were  his  old  problems  of 
physiology;  old  and  many  new.  The  opportunity  presented  it- 
self with  the  foundation  of  the  Rockefeller  Institute.  What  he 
accomplished  there,  constitutes  an  important  chapter  of  American 
medicine  and  more  competent  persons  than  I  will  give  you  an 
account  of  it.  To  me,  however,  tonight,  his  scientific  contribu- 
tions speak  second  and  his  life  first.  It  was  a  simple  life,  simple 
in  its  dignity  and  honesty  of  purpose,  magnificent  in  the  humble 
manner  of  its  great  service  to  man  and  to  ideal.  The  record  of 
his  life  is  the  message  Dr.  Meltzer  leaves  not  only  to  his  colleagues, 
not  only  to  the  medical  profession  of  America,  but  to  all. 


Personal  reminiscences  of  Dr.  Meltzer. 

By   GRAHAM   LUSK. 

A  friendly  personality  so  long  a  constant  attendant  at  every 
important  meeting  of  this  Academy  of  Medicine  has  passed  from 
us  in  the  fulness  of  years  and  in  the  honored  esteem  of  his  fellow- 
men.  Meltzer  was  born  in  Russia,  educated  in  Konigsberg,  and 
then  studied  philosophy  and  medicine  in  Berlin  between  1875  and 
1882.  In  1883  he  came  to  New  York  and  began  the  practice  of 
medicine.  He  was  deeply  imbued  with  the  scientific  spirit  of 
modern  German  medicine  and  was  also  a  highly  skilled  prac- 
titioner. 

At  one  of  the  clinics  in  Berlin,  so  he  once  told  me,  a  patient 
was  brought  into  the  amphitheater  and  he,  a  student  sitting  in 
the  top  row  of  the  circle  of  seats,  was  asked  to  make  the  diagnosis, 
to  which  he  quickly  replied  that  the  trouble  was  cancer.  "Nein,'' 
replied  the  professor.  The  question  was  put  to  several  others  who 
gave  other  interpretations  and  finally  again  to  Meltzer  who  re- 
plied, "I  told  you,  Herr  Professor,  the  patient  has  cancer."  A 
vigorous  "Nein"  was  the  rejoiner,  the  patient  was  passed  from 
the  room  and  the  professor  said,  "Herr  Meltzer,  the  patient  has 
carcinoma  ventricularis,  but  never  allow  yourself  to  tell  anyone 
that  he  has  a  fatal  disease."  This,  Meltzer  said,  he  had  carried 
with  him  as  a  lesson  all  his  life. 

Meltzer  was  not  content  to  cultivate  a  lucrative  practice  at 
the  expense  of  the  extinction  of  his  extraordinary,  inquisitive 
mind.  So  one  finds  him  taking  holidays  in  the  laboratories  of 
his  friends  in  Europe  and,  when  at  home  in  New  York,  he  would  go 
to  the  physiological  laboratory  of  the  P.  and  S.,  tie  his  horse  to 
a  lamp-post,  and  with  his  coachman  as  assistant,  perform  some 
physiological  experiment  for  the  comfort  of  his  conscience  and  the 
instruction  of  his  mind. 

I  well  remember  a  dinner  of  the  Association  of  American 
Physicians,  held  in  the  spring  of  1897,  an  affair  then  always 
participated  in  by  a  few  physiologists,  at  which  I  sat  between 


Personal  Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Meltzer.  21 

Meltzer  and  Chittenden,  and  my  father  sat  opposite.  After  the 
dinner  my  father  took  my  seat  and  explained  to  them  that  he 
considered  the  success  of  his  book  on  obstetrics  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  he  had  begun  his  life  as  a  trained  physiologist.  It  was 
the  kind  of  a  beginning  that  appealed  to  Meltzer. 

Meltzer  was  a  great  believer  in  associations  of  scientific  men. 
In  the  many  societies  to  which  he  belonged  he  was  the  most 
active  member,  continually  discussing  the  work  presented,  and 
often  pointing  out  similar  work  which  had  been  accomplished 
twenty,  thirty  or  fifty  years  before.  His  knowledge  was  phe- 
nomenal. 

He  became  dissatisfied  with  the  quality  of  the  men  in  many  of 
our  scientific  societies,  criticizing  them  for  their  lack  of  activity, 
and  out  of  this  dissatisfaction  sprang  in  1903  the  Society  for 
Experimental  Biology  and  Medicine,  sometimes  affectionately 
called  the  "Meltzer  Verein,"  a  name  which,  when  he  first  heard, 
he  indignantly  opposed.  Meltzer's  original  idea  was  that  the 
society  should  consist  entirely  of  workers,  and  that  those  who  did 
not  produce  should  be  automatically  dropped.  But  once  the 
society  was  formed,  the  exigencies  of  warm  personal  friendships 
did  not  allow  of  the  execution  of  the  proposed  penalty.  How- 
ever, it  represented  the  central  idea  of  his  mind  as  to  what  a 
scientific  worker  should  be. 

At  one  of  the  meetings  of  the  American  Physiological  Society, 
when  it  was  suggested  that  the  number  of  papers  read  by  any  one 
man  be  restricted,  Meltzer  opposed  the  resolution  and  offered  a 
substitute  to  make  it  obligatory  for  every  member  to  present  a 
paper. 

Once  I  spoke  to  him  of  retiring  from  active  work  at  some  in- 
definite future  date,  to  which  he  replied,  "No,  you  will  never 
do  it.  You  cannot.  You  will  go  on  doing  the  little  things  you 
are  able  to  do  until  the  end,  just  as  I  shall.  There  are  only  two 
things  which  would  stop  me  from  working.  If  anyone  said  to 
me,  '  Meltzer,  your  work  is  no  longer  good '  then  I  would  stop,  or 
if  anyone  said  to  me  'Meltzer,  you  can  no  longer  understand  a 
young  man'  then  I  would  stop  also." 

I  remember  that  one  evening  Meltzer  came  to  talk  with  me 
regarding  the  establishment  of  the  Harvey  Society  which  was 


22  Memorial  Number. 

designed  to  offer  a  forum  for  scientific  speakers  in  New  York. 
He  opposed  the  idea  at  every  point,  saying  that  New  York  was 
not  a  scientific  center  and  that  there  would  be  no  audiences. 
Two  or  three  days  after  that  he  telephoned  me  to  call  the  meeting 
which  had  been  proposed  but  I  expostulated  that  he  believed  the 
affair  doomed  to  failure.  "Ah,  but  I  have  changed  my  mind," 
he  replied.  So  the  meeting  was  held  with  Meltzer  in  the  chair  and 
he  overcame  one  after  another  all  the  arguments  against  the 
proposed  society  which  a  few  days  before  he  himself  had  felt  as  in- 
superable objections.  Finally  he  said,  "At  any  rate,  we  will 
all  go  and  form  a  small  group  to  encourage  the  speakers."  At  the 
first  meeting  Hans  Meyer  spoke  and  at  the  second  this  hall  of 
the  Academy  was  crowded  to  hear  Carl  von  Noorden  on  the  oc- 
casion of  his  first  visit  to  America.  And  Meltzer's  own  lecture 
before  the  Harvey  Society  on  the  "Factors  of  Safety  in  Animal 
Structure  and  Animal  Economy"  attained  world-wide  celebrity. 

A  few  years  before  this  New  York  as  a  scientific  center  was 
pretty  bleak  and  barren.  In  1898-99  a  few  men,  Lee,  Herter, 
Dunham,  Park,  John  Thatcher,  Benjamin  Moore,  then  in  New 
Haven,  and  I,  who  were  interested  in  laboratory  work,  met 
together  informally  at  each  other's  houses  and  learned  to  know 
one  another  socially.  This  gathering  was  not  resumed  the  fol- 
lowing year.  Then  there  sprang  up  a  Society  of  Biological 
Chemists  which  met  at  regular  intervals  in  the  physiological 
laboratory  of  the  New  York  University  and  Bellevue  Hospital 
Medical  College  for  the  reason  that  this  was  the  only  institution 
to  which  access  could  then  be  obtained  in  the  evening.  This 
society  afterward  merged  with  the  Society  for  Experimental 
Biology  and  Medicine  and  later  gave  its  surplus  of  about  a  hundred 
dollars  to  help  institute  the  Harvey  Society. 

It  was  in  1904,  I  think,  after  a  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Ex- 
perimental Biology  and  Medicine  that  Meltzer  drove  me  home 
from  the  P.  and  S.  He  took  me  across  the  park  in  his  brougham 
drawn  by  a  pair  of  horses.  He  said  to  me  "I  am  going  to  give 
up  all  this.  I  am  going  to  do  what  is  nearest  my  heart.  I  am 
going  to  the  newly  founded  Rockefeller  Institute  to  spend  the 
rest  of  my  life  in  research.  They  allow  me  to  practice  medicine 
in  so  far  as  it  pleases  me,  but  my  main  desire  is  for  experimental 
work." 


Personal  Reminiscences  of  Dr.  Meltzer.  23 

This  represented  the  spirit  of  his  great  love  for  scientific  work. 
At  one  and  the  same  time  he  not  only  fulfilled  the  desire  of  his 
life,  but  he  renounced  the  material  treasures  of  this  world,  and  yet 
he  remained  free  and  untrammeled  to  do  as  he  liked.  On  one 
occasion  when  I  publicly  mentioned  this  incident  before  him  he 
regarded  me  with  disapproval,  and  yet  I  believe  it  belongs  to 
the  story  of  his  life.  Very  few  men  at  the  age  of  fifty-five  would 
do  likewise. 

Meltzer  was  always  a  prominent  figure  at  those  international 
congresses  which  he  attended.  On  such  occasions  the  friend- 
ships between  Meltzer  and  his  old  associate,  Knonecker,  were 
always  warmly  renewed.  At  the  International  Physiological 
Congress  at  Groningen  in  1913  Meltzer,  speaking  in  German, 
presented  an  eloquent  and  graciously  worded  invitation  that  the 
proposed  congress  of  1916  meet  in  New  York.  At  the  close  of 
the  speech  a  German  turned  to  me  and  said,  "Aber,  Meltzer's 
Rede  war  schon!" 

Like  many  of  us  who  had  known  the  better  side  of  intellectual 
Germany,  Meltzer  was  extremely  cast  down  by  the  war.  He 
sought  to  prepare  the  way  for  peace  in  his  "Fraternitas  medi- 
corum"  which  was  founded  on  the  assumption  that,  since  physi- 
cians of  the  Red  Cross  were  bound  to  serve  friend  and  foe  alike, 
therefore,  physicians  themselves  could  readily  resume  friendly 
relations  at  the  termination  of  hostilities.  The  supreme  bar- 
barity of  modern  warfare,  however,  has  prevented  the  consumma- 
tion of  this  altruistic  hope. 

Meltzer  belonged  truly  to  the  younger  men  of  his  generation. 
For  them  he  would  make  any  sacrifice.  He  established  the  Ameri- 
can Association  of  Clinical  Research,  the  members  of  which  were 
to  be  workers  in  the  scientific  sense.  This  society  was  so  revolu- 
tionary that  it  earned  the  name  of  "The  Young  Turks."  He 
was  continually  saying  that  in  clinical  medicine  we  had  not  yet 
reached  a  proper  level  of  accomplishment,  a  level  he  hoped  would 
still  be  attained  in  the  future.  It  is  usually  hard  for  an  older 
man  to  properly  appraise  those  who  are  much  younger  than  he. 
Liebig  thought  Voit  a  man  without  ideas,  and  Voit  twenty  years 
later  knew  of  no  prominent  physiologist  of  forty  years  of  age, 
at  a  time  when  Kossel  and  Hofmeister  would  both  have  been  in- 


24  Memorial  Number. 

eluded  in  that  category.  However,  Meltzer  was  not  of  the  type 
to  grow  out  of  touch  with  the  young  men  whom  he  had  always  so 
greatly  encouraged  and  his  judgment  of  them  was  not  to  be 
ignored. 

He  said  to  me  one  day,  "Your  ideas  concerning  medical  edu- 
cation are  certain  to  be  accepted — not  because  you  say  them,  but 
because  they  are  right."  These  heartening  words  only  illustrate 
the  helpfulness  of  his  spirit  as  vouchsafed  to  many.  Honest 
words  of  strong  condemnation  or  criticism  from  his  lips  also 
meant  much  to  those  of  us  who  knew  the  texture  of  the  mind 
behind  them. 

Last  spring  he  said  to  me,  "If  my  good  friends  at  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute,  out  of  affection  for  me  and  solicitude  for  my  wel- 
fare, insist  that  I  leave  my  laboratory  there,  I  want  to  know  if 
you  will  not  permit  me  to  work  in  your  laboratory."  He  asked 
the  same  privilege  of  others.  In  the  face  of  pain  and  suffering 
the  indomitable  spirit  of  the  man  could  not  be  overcome. 

We  remember  how,  time  and  time  again,  Meltzer  has  sat 
among  the  front  seats  of  this  Academy  next  to  his  old  friend, 
Abraham  Jacobi,  and  we  are  grateful  to  have  known  one  who 
has  added  by  his  own  work  and  by  his  own  personality  so  richly 
to  the  growth  of  New  York  as  a  center  of  medical  science.  The 
story  of  his  life  is  of  value  to  us  all.  Once  he  proudly  remarked, 
"I  am  of  the  race  of  which  came  Jesus  Christ."  And,  in  fact, 
there  are  few  men  of  our  time  who  more  completely  embodied 
all  the  Christian  virtues. 


Dr.  Meltzer's  influence  on  American  Physiology. 

By  WILLIAM   H.   HOWELL. 

Dr.  Samuel  James  Meltzer  was  born  in  Curland,  northwestern 
Russia,  March  22,  1851.  He  received  his  preliminary  education 
in  a  Real  Gymnasium  in  Konigsberg  and  his  later  training  in 
the  University  of  Berlin  where  he  graduated  in  medicine  in  1882. 
After  taking  his  medical  degree  he  decided  to  make  his  career  in 
America,  as  the  country  which  in  his  opinion  had  the  best  form  of 
government.  He  had  not  sufficient  means  to  make  the  journey 
and  was  therefore  obliged  to  secure  a  position  as  ship's  surgeon  on 
one  of  the  transatlantic  vessels.  On  arriving  in  New  York  it 
was  necessary  in  the  beginning  to  devote  his  time  mainly  to  build- 
ing up  a  practise  sufficient  to  support  his  family,  but  almost  from 
the  beginning  he  made  arrangements  also  to  give  part  of  his 
time  to  research.  From  that  period  until  his  death  on  November 
7, 1920,  in  his  seventieth  year  he  was  a  tireless  investigator.  When 
in  the  course  of  time  the  opportunity  came  to  him  from  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute  to  give  his  time  entirely  to  research  he  did  not  hesi- 
tate in  making  his  decision.  At  a  considerable  financial  sacrifice 
he  abandoned  his  medical  practise  to  devote  himself  to  the  kind 
of  work  that  he  most  loved  and  most  valued.  By  his  good  work 
and  his  high  character  he  attained  a  position  of  honor  and  distinc- 
tion in  American  medicine  and  endeared  himself  to  his  fellow- 
workers  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  His  productivity  was  re- 
markable. The  list  of  his  published  papers  includes  over  two 
hundred  and  forty  titles,  distributed  among  some  forty-eight 
scientific  journals  of  this  country,  Germany  and  England.  These 
papers  contain  contributions  to  the  subjects  of  physiology,  phar- 
macology, pathology  and  clinical  medicine  together  with  a  number 
of  lectures  and  general  addresses.  That  he  was  an  investigator  of 
recognized  standing  in  these  several  branches  of  medicine  and  was 
regarded  as  a  valued  contributor  to  so  many  scientific  journals  of 
the  first  rank  is  a  striking  demonstration  of  the  breadth  of  his  in- 
terests and  knowledge.     He  was  a  member  of  twenty  or  more 

25 


26  Memorial  Number. 

national  scientific  or  clinical  societies  and  in  all  of  them  it  may  be 
said  he  was  prepared  to  take  his  part  as  an  expert  in  the  reading 
and  the  discussion  of  technical  papers. 

He  served  as  president  of  the  American  Physiological  Society, 
the  Society  for  Experimental  Biology  and  Medicine,  the  American 
Gastro-enterological  Society,  the  American  Society  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Clinical  Research,  the  Association  of  American 
Physicians  and  the  American  Association  for  Thoracic  Surgery. 
The  membership  in  these  societies  is  composed  of  trained  spe- 
cialists. It  is  their  custom  to  choose  as  their  presiding  officer 
only  those  who  have  made  contributions  of  distinction  to  the 
subject  to  which  the  society  is  devoted.  It  seems  to  me  unique 
in  the  modern  history  of  medicine  for  one  man  to  have  received 
such  special  recognition  from  technical  workers  in  so  many  different 
fields. 

While  his  activities  covered  this  large  range  he  was  interested 
primarily  in  physiology.  "I  belong,"  he  said  in  a  recent  paper  "to 
those  who  believe  .  .  .  that  the  knowledge  of  physiology  is  of 
special  importance  to  clinical  medicine."  His  work  in  this  field 
entitles  him  certainly  to  be  ranked  among  the  foremost  American 
physiologists.  In  attempting  to  present  some  estimate  of  the 
results  of  his  labors  I  must  limit  myself  mainly  to  his  physiological 
activity.  Indeed  in  this  subject  alone  his  papers  are  so  varied 
that  it  will  be  possible  to  bring  under  review  only  what  seem  to 
be  his  major  contributions.  His  first  appearance  as  an  investi- 
gator is  recorded  in  a  brief  note  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Berlin 
Physiological  Society,  May  14,  1880.  In  this  note  it  is  stated 
that  Professor  Kronecker  exhibited  a  dog  in  which  Herr  Cand 
Med.  Meltzer  had  cut  the  nerves  going  to  the  mylohyoid  muscle 
and  thus  demonstrated  the  importance  of  this  muscle  in  the 
initial  stage  of  swallowing.  At  a  later  meeting  of  the  society 
in  the  same  year  Kronecker  presented  the  full  results  of  an  in- 
vestigation carried  out  by  Herr  Cand.  Med.  Meltzer  under  his 
supervision  on  the  "Process  of  Swallowing."  This  paper  was 
published  subsequently  by  Kronecker  and  Meltzer  in  the  Monats- 
bericht  der  Konigl.  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften  zu  Berlin,  1881. 
In  this  important  contribution  the  mechanism  of  swallowing  was 
given  an  entirely  new  interpretation  which  has  since  been  generally 


Influence  on  American  Physiology.  27 

accepted  and  is  known  as  the  Kronecker-Meltzer  theory  of  deglu- 
tition. Meltzer  had  attracted  Kronecker's  attention  while  a 
student  in  his  course.  Out  of  this  acquaintanceship  developed 
an  invitation  to  engage  in  a  research  and  eventually  a  warm  friend- 
ship between  the  two  men  that  lasted  throughout  life.  Meltzer's 
career  was  thus  determined  while  still  a  student  of  medicine. 
Kronecker's  influence  attracted  him  to  physiology  and  set  his 
feet  in  the  paths  of  research.  The  investigation  in  which  they 
collaborated  was  important  and  original — ^just  what  part  each 
contributed  it  is  not  now  possible  to  discover,  but  it  is  interesting 
to  find  that  this  initial  venture  into  research  furnished  a  motif 
which  can  be  detected  recurring  again  and  again  in  Meltzer's 
subsequent  work.  A  companion  paper  upon  "Die  Irradiationen 
des  Schluckcentrums  und  ihre  Bedeutung"  was  published  by 
Meltzer  alone  in  1883.  It  is  a  very  suggestive  paper  on  account  of 
the  careful  analysis  it  contains  of  the  far-reaching  and  curious 
effects  in  the  central  nervous  system  of  the  act  of  swallowing  and 
also  because  in  it  Meltzer  announces  certain  views  upon  the  im- 
portance of  the  inhibitory  processes  which  subsequently  formed 
the  basis  of  his  theory  of  inhibition,  and  remained  with  him 
throughout  life  as  a  sort  of  compass  by  which  to  set  his  course  on 
his  voyages  of  discovery.  He  calls  attention  in  this  work  to  the 
fact  that  reflex  excitation  of  the  inspiratory  muscles  is  accom- 
panied by  reflex  inhibition  of  the  expiratory  muscles  and  vice 
versa,  and  he  goes  on  to  make  the  suggestion  that  a  similar  re- 
lationship must  prevail  in  the  case  of  all  antagonistic  muscles  such 
as  the  extensors  and  flexors  of  the  limbs.  Some  ten  years  later 
Sherrington  gave  the  necessary  demonstration  that  this  interrela- 
tion does  hold  with  the  muscular  antagonists,  that  the  contrac- 
tion of  the  one  is  accompanied  by  the  inhibition  of  the  other  and 
he  designated  this  relationship  under  the  term  of  "reciprocal 
innervation."  Meltzer  meanwhile  had  been  accumulating  in- 
stances of  this  combined  action  of  excitation  and  inhibition,  but 
he  neglected  at  that  period  to  apply  a  distinctive  name  to  this 
kind  of  correlated  activity.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  when 
it  is  possible  to  label  an  idea  with  an  appropriate  designation  its 
currency  in  the  scientific  world  is  greatly  facilitated.  In  his  paper 
on  "The  Self-Regulation  of  Respiration"  read  before  the  Ameri- 


28  Memorial  Number. 

can  Physiological  Society  in  1889  and  published  in  the  New  York 
Medical  Journal  and  under  a  different  title  in  the  Archiv.  fur 
Physiologie  he  describes  experiments  intended  to  show  that  two 
kinds  of  afferent  fibers  exist  in  the  vagus  nerve,  one  exciting  and  the 
other  inhibiting  inspiratory  movements.  He  used  this  fact  to 
modify  the  Hering-Breuer  theory  of  the  self-regulation  of  the 
respirations  by  assuming  that  the  expansion  of  the  lungs  stimulates 
both  groups  of  fibers.  The  resultant  effect,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
simultaneous  stimulation  of  the  motor  and  inhibitory  fibers  to  the 
heart,  is  a  dominance  of  the  inhibitory  effect,  thus  cutting  short  the 
inspiration  and  bringing  on  an  expiration.  But  after  the  inhibi- 
tion ceases  the  excitatory  fibers,  which,  like  the  acceleratory 
fibers  of  the  heart  have  a  long  after  action,  come  into  play  and 
start  a  new  inspiration.  In  his  first  general  paper  on  inhibition 
this  idea  of  a  combined  action  of  opposing  processes  is  extended 
by  the  citation  of  numerous  instances  taken  from  physiological 
literature  and  is  expanded  into  a  general  theory  which  makes 
inhibition  a  universal  property  of  irritable  tissues. 

"I  entertain  and  defend  the  view  that  the  phenomena  of  life 
are  not  simply  the  outcome  of  the  single  factor  of  excitation,  but 
they  are  the  result  of  a  compromise  between  two  antagonistic 
factors,  the  fundamental  forces  of  life,  excitation  and  inhibition." 

That  is  to  say,  whenever  a  tissue  is  stimulated  two  different 
processes  are  aroused,  one  leading  to  functional  activity  and  one  to 
a  suppression  of  activity.  As  to  the  nature  of  these  processes  very 
little  is  said.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  the  Hering-Gaskell  con- 
ception that  excitation  follows  or  is  an  accompaniment  of  catabolic 
changes  while  inhibition  is  due  to  processes  of  an  anabolic  or 
assimilative  character.  He  goes  only  so  far  as  to  assume  that 
both  processes  are  concerned  with  the  kinetic  and  potential  energies 
of  the  system,  that  excitation  facilitates  the  conversion  of  potential 
to  kinetic  energy  while  inhibition  hinders  or  retards  this  con- 
version, like  the  turning  off  or  on  of  a  stopcock.  Nor  was  he 
satisfied  with  Sherrington's  term  of  reciprocal  innervation  to 
describe  all  of  the  phenomena  he  had  in  mind.  While  this  phrase 
is  a  suitable  designation  for  the  relationship  between  physically  an- 
tagonistic muscles  such  as  the  flexors  and  extensors  it  is  less  ap- 
propriate in  other  cases,  for  example  the  simultaneous  phases  of 


Influence  on  American  Physiology.  29 

contraction  and  inhibition  exhibited  in  peristalsis.  In  later  papers 
he  suggested  first  the  term  crossed  innervation  borrowed  from  von 
Basch,  but  subsequently  adopted  the  designation  of  contrary  in- 
nervation as  more  applicable  to  the  whole  series  of  phenomena 
which  he  was  considering.  This  process  he  believed  is  universal  in 
its  action — it  is  "manifest  in  all  the  functions  of  the  animal  body." 
Moreover  his  experience  and  observation  as  a  practising  physician 
led  him  to  believe  that  "a  disturbance  of  this  law  is  a  factor  of  more 
or  less  importance  in  the  pathogenesis  of  many  disorders  and  di- 
seases of  the  animal  body."  In  this  way  he  would  explain  in  part 
at  least  the  muscular  incoordination  in  tabes  and  the  gastric  crises 
of  that  disease,  as  well  as  gastric  and  intestinal  colic  in  general.  If 
the  orderly  sequence  of  a  peristaltic  wave  is  disturbed  so  that  the 
advancing  wave  of  contraction  meets  a  contracted  instead  of  an 
inhibited  area  conditions  are  present  which  may  well  bring  about  a 
distension  sufficient  to  account  for  the  pain  of  colic.  He  gives 
many  other  illustrations  of  pathological  conditions  which  may 
find  a  plausible  explanation  on  the  assumption  of  a  disorder  or  dis- 
harmony in  the  law  of  contrary  innervation.  How  far  Dr.  Meltzer 
was  correct  in  the  applications  of  his  theory  it  is  not  possible  to  say. 
In  all  probability  some  of  the  specific  instances  that  he  cites  in 
support  of  his  views  are  amenable  now  to  other  explanations.  But 
it  is  a  fact,  I  believe,  that  he  was  much  in  advance  of  his  earlier 
contemporaries  in  the  emphasis  he  placed  upon  the  significance  of 
inhibition  in  the  general  activities  of  the  body.  The  story  is  far 
from  being  told  but  it  may  be  said  that  physiological  thought 
since  1883  has  tended  more  and  more  toward  some  such  general 
conception  of  the  role  of  inhibition  as  was  in  Meltzer's  mind.  For 
him  at  least  it  was  a  rewarding  theory,  it  played,  as  he  expressed  it, 
a  dominating  part  in  all  of  his  researches.  One  can  not  wholly  ap- 
preciate his  work  nor  understand  his  position  on  controversial 
pointsunless  thisattitude  is  borne  in  mind.  His  theory.of  shock  for 
example  to  which  he  held  tenaciously  was  that  "the  various  in- 
juries which  are  capable  of  bringing  on  shock  do  so  by  favoring  the 
development  of  the  inhibitory  side  of  all  the  functions  of  the  body." 
There  is  a  shifting  of  the  normal  balance  toward  the  side  of  in- 
hibition. 


30  Memorial  Number. 

The  most  important  of  his  contributions  in  later  years  will  be 
found  in  three  series  of  researches,  one  dealing  with  the  action  of 
adrenalin  upon  the  blood-vessels  and  the  pupillary  muscles;  one 
with  the  inhibitory  action  of  magnesium  sulphate  and  the  antag- 
onistic effect  of  the  calcium  salts,  and  one  with  the  development 
of  his  method  of  artificial  respiration  by  pharyngeal  and  intra- 
tracheal insufflation.  The  first  series  consists  of  eight  or  nine 
papers,  mostly  in  collaboration  with  his  daughter.  They  showed 
in  this  work  that  the  temporary  action  of  adrenalin  upon  the  blood- 
vessels may  be  converted  into  a  long-lasting  effect,  in  the  case  of 
the  ear-vessels,  if  these  vessels  are  first  denervated  by  section  of  the 
vaso-motor  fibers  in  the  sympathetic  and  the  third  cervical  nerve. 
A  more  striking  result  still  was  obtained  for  the  iris.  In  the 
mammal  subcutaneous  injections  of  adrenalin  in  moderate  doses 
have  no  effect  upon  the  size  of  the  pupil,  but  if  the  superior  cervical 
ganglion  is  first  excised  then,  after  a  certain  interval,  subcutaneous 
injections  bring  on  a  marked  and  long-lasting  dilatation.  His 
explanation  of  these  phenomena  was  made  in  terms  of  his  theory  of 
inhibition.  Whether  or  not  his  views  in  regard  to  the  relations  of 
the  cervical  ganglion  to  pupillary  dilatation  will  stand  the  test  of 
future  experimental  work  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  observation 
itself  constitutes  a  significant  instance  of  a  kind  of  independent 
physiological  activity  on  the  part  of  a  peripheral  ganglion.  The 
bearing  of  these  facts  upon  the  prevalent  conception  of  the  rapid 
destruction  of  epinephrin  in  the  tissues  was  brought  out  especially 
in  a  paper  with  Auer  in  which  it  was  shown  that  if  adrenalin  is 
injected  into  a  ligated  limb  and  an  hour  or  so  afterward  the  liga- 
ture is  removed  the  dilatation  of  the  pupil  quickly  follows,  thus 
demonstrating  that  for  this  long  period  the  adrenalin  had  re- 
mained unaffected  by  the  tissues.  Incidental  results  of  this 
series  of  experiments  were  his  discovery  of  the  use  of  the  frog's  eye 
as  a  biological  reagent  for  the  detection  of  small  concentrations  of 
epinephrin  and  the  rapidity  of  absorption  in  intramuscular  as 
compared  with  subcutaneous  injections. 

The  work  upon  the  inhibitory  and  anesthetic  effects  of  mag- 
nesium salts  gave  rise  to  no  less  than  twenty  five  papers,  most  of 
them  published  in  collaboration  with  one  or  another  of  his  associ- 
ates but  chiefly  with  Dr.  Auer.     The  peculiar  inhibitory  action  of 


Influence  on  American  Physiology.  31 

magnesium  sulphate  had  attracted  his  attention  as  far  back  as 
1899,  and  he  reported  upon  it  incidentally  in  a  communication  to 
the  American  Physiological  Society.  But  in  1904-05,  influenced 
again  by  his  general  conception  of  the  importance  of  the  inhibitory 
processes  he  took  up  with  Auer  a  careful  physiological  study  of  its 
action.  The  results  were  most  interesting  and  important.  When 
given  subcutaneously  in  certain  doses  the  magnesium  sulphate 
produces  a  condition  of  complete  unconsciousness  and  muscular 
paralysis  or  relaxation,  which  is  reversible,  in  the  sense  that  when 
the  animal  is  given  proper  care  it  recovers.  Later  he  was  able  to 
show  that  out  of  this  condition  of  profound  depression  or  inhibition 
the  animal  may  be  restored  to  complete  consciousness  and  motil- 
ity with  miraculous  suddenness  by  the  intravascular  injection  of 
small  amounts  of  calcium  chloride.  No  one  who  was  fortunate 
enough  to  see  this  demonstration  as  given  by  Dr.  Meltzer  will  for- 
get its  dram.atic  effect  upon  his  audience.  A  healthy  vigorous 
rabbit  was  brought  quickly  to  a  condition  of  complete  immobility 
and  apparent  death  by  the  magnesium  sulphate  and  then  even 
more  suddenly  raised  from  the  dead  and  restored  to  its  normal 
tranquil  existence  by  the  injection  of  some  calcium  chloride. 
Meltzer  and  his  collaborators  investigated  various  phases  of 
this  action  of  magnesium  sulphate  and  all  of  the  results  obtained 
tended  to  strengthen  in  his  mind  the  conviction  that  in  magnesium 
he  had  discovered  the  element  in  the  body  that  is  especially  con- 
cerned in  the  processes  of  inhibition.  The  antagonistic  action  of 
the  calcium  although  exhibited  in  such  a  striking  way  was  not  in 
his  opinion  specific.  His  own  experiments  in  connection  with  the 
results  reported  by  other  observers  led  him  to  the  general  view  that 
calcium  serves  to  balance  the  abnormal  activity  of  the  other 
kations,  potassium,  sodium  and  magnesium,  whether  this  ab- 
normal action  is  in  the '  direction  of  excitation  or  of  inhibition. 
Modern  work  upon  the  physiological  significance  of  the  inorganic 
constituents  of  the  body  fluids  which  was  begun  in  Ludwig's 
laboratory,  but  was  given  its  main  impetus  by  the  striking  con- 
tributions of  Ringer  had  concerned  itself  chiefly  with  the  salts 
of  potassium,  sodium  and  calcium,  which  alone  seemed  to  be  suffi- 
cient to  maintain  normal  conditions  of  irritability.  Meltzer's 
work  has  shown  that  magnesium  also  has  its  place  in  this  ancient 


32  Memorial  Number. 

balance  of  powers  through  which  the  functional  activity  of  pro- 
toplasm is  controlled.  One  can  understand  that  in  arriving  at 
these  results  he  must  have  felt  that  he  was  approximating  at  least 
a  demonstration  of  the  correctness  of  his  general  conception  of  the 
role  of  inhibition  in  functional  activity.  In  this  as  in  all  of  his 
experimental  work  Meltzer  was  eager  to  give  his  results  a  practical 
application  to  the  art  of  medicine.  The  possibilities  of  the  use  of 
magnesium  salts  as  an  anesthetic  agent  in  surgical  operations  were 
tested  with  some  success  on  human  beings  and  more  important  still 
its  efficacy  in  controlling  the  spasms  of  tetanus  has  had  a  wide  and 
promising  application. 

His  last  extensive  series  of  researches  dealt  with  anesthetization 
and  artificial  respiration  through  pharyngeal  and  intratracheal  in- 
sufiflation.  Something  like  twenty-eight  papers,  most  of  them  in 
collaboration  with  pupils  or  assistants,  were  devoted  to  this  subject. 
His  interest  in  this  topic  seems  to  have  been  stimulated  by  the  fact 
that  in  his  use  of  magnesium  sulphate  for  anesthetic  purposes  the 
chief  danger  lay  in  the  inhibition  of  the  activity  of  the  respiratory 
center.  To  meet  this  difficulty  he  undertook  a  study  of  the 
methods  of  artificial  respiration.  The  initial  paper  in  1909  by 
Meltzer  and  Auer  described  a  method  of  artificial  respiration  by 
continuous  insufflation  of  the  lungs  through  a  tracheal  catheter. 
It  was  found  that  by  this  means  not  only  could  an  animal  be  kept 
alive  without  the  action  of  the  respiratory  movements  to  fill  and 
empty  the  lungs,  but  that  it  furnished  also  a  convenient  and  effi- 
cient method  for  anesthetization.  The  use  of  this  method  in 
animal  experimentation  and  especially  its  use  in  human  surgery 
of  the  thorax  and  facial  region  was  apparent  and  on  many  occa- 
sions Meltzer  sought  to  make  known  its  advantages  and  to  ask  for 
an  adequate  trial  of  its  merits  at  the  hands  of  the  practical  sur- 
geons. The  method  has  found  some  acceptance  and  the  applica- 
tion of  the  principle  involved  will  no  doubt  be  extended  in  the 
future  as  the  technique  of  thoracic  surgery  improves.  It  was 
in  recognition  of  the  importance  of  this  work  that  the  American 
Association  for  Thoracic  Surgery  asked  him,  a  physician  and 
laboratory  worker,  to  serve  as  their  first  president.  It  was 
natural  that  this  work  should  have  led  him  to  consider  the  whole 
matter  of  artificial  respiration  in  its  relations  to  resuscitation  after 


Influence  on  American  Physiology.  33 

accidents  of  various  sorts.  His  general  paper  in  the  Medical 
Record  for  1917  giving  a  history  and  critical  analysis  of  the  methods 
of  resuscitation  is  an  interesting  and  valuable  contribution.  He 
gives  experimental  data  to  prove  that  his  device  of  intratracheal 
insufflation  is  the  most  efficient  method  of  artificial  respiration 
both  for  man  and  animals.  But  he  realized  that  it  is  a  method 
which  requires  special  knowledge  and  training  for  its  successful 
execution,  and  his  broadening  acquaintance  with  and  interest  in 
the  practical  aspects  of  resuscitation  led  him  to  experiment  with 
the  less  efficient  and  less  safe  method  of  pharyngeal  insufflation. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  three  national  commissions  on  resuscita- 
tion and  served  as  chairman  of  the  third  commission.  In  connec- 
tion with  the  duties  of  this  service  he  devised  a  simple  portable  form 
of  apparatus  for  pharyngeal  insufflation  which  can  be  used  with 
very  little  previous  instruction  and  he  demonstrated,  with  entire 
success  I  believe,  that  this  form  of  apparatus  is  much  more  efficient 
than  any  of  the  so-called  manual  methods  of  resuscitation,  or 
than  any  of  the  special  machines  for  this  purpose,  pulmotors 
and  lungmotors,  which  have  been  exploited  commercially  during 
the  past  few  years.  It  was,  I  imagine,  a  sore  disappointment  to 
him  that  he  was  not  able  to  convince  his  colleagues  on  the  third 
commission  that  this  apparatus  met  all  the  requirements  for  in- 
dustrial and  military  use.  It  is  probably  the  simplest  and  best 
instrument  yet  devised  for  artificial  respiration  as  applied  to  man, 
and  in  institutions  or  industrial  establishments  where  the  need  for 
artificial  respiration  may  arise  frequently  and  where  special  in- 
dividuals may  be  instructed  in  its  use  it  can  be  employed  to  great 
advantage.  But  it  does  require  some  little  amount  of  training  to 
use  it  properly — the  average  uninstructed  man  or  woman  can  not 
be  trusted  to  apply  it  intelligently,  and  for  this  reason  the  com- 
mission felt  that  it  was  wise  to  urge  adoption  of  a  manual  method 
as  the  form  of  first  aid  which  may  be  applied  most  successfully 
under  ordinary  conditions. 

While  the  researches  that  I  have  attempted  to  summarize  repre- 
sent his  most  important  contribution  to  physiological  science.  Dr. 
Meltzer  kept  in  close  touch  with  the  progress  in  almost  all  branches 
of  experimental  medicine.  He  gave  evidence  of  this  interest  in 
the  publication  of  occasional  papers  on  various  topics  or  in  articles 


34  Memorial  Number. 

of  a  general  character.  Shock,  cardiac  arrhythmias,  therapeutics 
of  self-repair,  hemolysis,  thyroid  therapy,  edema  are  among  the 
subjects  upon  which  he  wrote,  but  probably  the  most  original  and 
helpful  of  his  general  papers  is  his  well-known  Harvey  Lecture, 
1906,  on  "The  Factors  of  Safety  in  Animal  Structure  and  Ani- 
mal Economy."  He  applied  this  engineering  term  in  a  convincing 
way  to  describe  the  reserve  powers  possessed  by  many  of  the 
mechanisms  of  the  body.  Doubtless  the  general  conception  in- 
volved had  occurred  to  many  others,  but  no  one  before  him  so  far 
as  I  know,  had  developed  the  idea  so  comprehensively  and  made  of 
this  provision  a  leading  factor  in  the  adaptation  of  the  economy  to 
its  environment.  The  happy  phrase  that  he  employed  served  to 
precipitate  the  loose  thought  upon  the  subject,  and  its  frequent 
recurrence  since  in  medical  literature  is  proof  that  the  conception 
which  it  expresses  has  found  wide  acceptance  in  scientific  circles. 
It  is  evident  that  his  own  thoughts  were  turned  in  this  direction 
by  the  work  of  Chittenden  upon  the  minimum  protein  diet. 
While  he  accepted,  of  course,  the  facts  demonstrated  by  this  ob- 
server in  regard  to  the  possibility  of  maintenance  upon  a  low  pro- 
tein diet  he  was  not  willing  to  believe  that  a  minimum  diet  is  also 
an  optimum  diet  in  relation  to  the  various  metabolic  stresses  to 
which  the  body  may  be  subjected.  The  experiences  of  the  great 
war  may  serve  to  show  that  he  was  correct  in  taking  this  position. 
To  do  full  justice  to  the  influence  exerted  upon  contemporary 
medical  research  by  Meltzer's  work  would  require  a  careful  analysis 
of  the  entire  medical  literature  of  the  period,  for,  as  I  have  tried 
to  indicate,  his  sympathies  were  very  broad  and  his  activity  was 
great.  In  some  measure,  either  as  interpreter  or  contributor  this 
influence  was  felt  at  many  of  the  points  of  contact  between  medical 
science  and  medical  practise.  The  border  land  between  these  sub- 
jects was  in  fact  his  special  field  of  work.  He  had  the  spirit  and 
ideals  of  the  scientist,  and  knew  at  first  hand  what  research  work 
really  means.  He  had  experienced  the  labor  and  care  and  de- 
votion required  of  those  who  aspire  to  increase  knowledge.  On 
the  other  hand  he  had  a  personal  realization  of  the  difficulties  and 
necessities  of  medical  practise  and  so  was  especially  fitted  to  act  as 
a  sort  of  liaison  officer  between  the  two  great  wings  of  the  medical 
army,  the  investigators  who  have  the  difficult  task  of  discovering 


Influence  on  American  Physiology.  35 

new  truths,  and  the  practitioners  who  must  learn  to  apply  these 
truths  to  the  preservation  of  health  and  the  protection  from  disease. 
No  one  in  our  generation,  I  venture  to  say,  was  more  useful  in 
this  country  in  bringing  about  a  helpful  and  sympathetic  under- 
standing between  the  laboratory  worker  and  the  physician.  As  a 
physiologist  he  enjoyed  the  best  opportunities  and  training  of 
his  period.  He  was  equipped  with  the  methods  and  technique 
that  the  subject  owes  to  the  great  masters  of  the  latter  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  more  modern  methods  of  physics  and 
chemistry  which  seem  to  be  essential  for  the  new  generation  of 
physiological  workers  he  did  not  possess,  but  he  did  not  let  this 
deficiency  discourage  him  nor  diminish  in  any  way  his  activity  in 
research.  He  had  the  wisdom  to  understand  that  the  armamen- 
tarium with  which  he  was  provided  was  adequate  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  much  important  and  necessary  investigation.  He 
was  no  faint-hearted  seeker  after  truth.  There  never  was  a  time, 
I  fancy,  in  his  active  life  when  his  mind  was  not  full  of  problems 
that  he  wished  to  solve  and  which  he  intended  to  solve  in  part  at 
least  with  the  aid  of  his  experimental  methods. 

Dr.  Meltzer  was  elected  to  membership  in  the  American 
Physiological  Society  at  its  first  annual  meeting  held  in  Phila- 
delphia in  December,  1888.  From  that  time  until  his  death  he 
was  perhaps  its  most  faithful  member  in  attendance,  in  the  pre- 
sentation of  papers  and  in  participation  in  the  discussions  and 
social  intercourse.  Other  less  heroic  spirits  might  weary  under  the 
load  of  papers  and  seek  respite  and  fresh  air  by  frequent  dis- 
appearances between  acts,  but  this  was  never  the  case  with  Melt- 
zer. He  loved  the  meetings,  he  loved  to  listen  to  the  papers  and  to 
take  part  in  the  discussions.  He  had  something  to  say  of  value  on 
almost  every  paper  that  was  read.  It  is  small  wonder  therefore 
that  his  position  and  influence  in  the  society  constantly  increased 
in  importance.  He  served  as  president  from  191 1  to  1913,  but 
the  older  members  know  that  before  that  time  and  since  his  advice 
was  paramount  in  matters  of  policy  as  well  as  in  the  selection  of 
officers.  He  was  sincerely  and  deeply  interested  in  the  welfare  of 
the  society  and  believed  in  its  importance  as  one  of  the  major 
agencies  concerned  in  the  advancement  of  the  cause  of  physiological 
research.     What  he  had  to  say  in  regard  to  its  policies  was  always 


36  Memorial  Number. 

said  in  the  opening  meetings  and  in  the  plainest  of  terms,  and  if 
in  his  opinion  it  was  necessary  to  be  critical  of  either  persons  or 
things  he  never  hesitated  to  express  what  was  in  his  mind.  His 
courage  in  stating  his  position  in  matters  in  which  some  personal 
criticism  necessarily  played  a  part  in  the  discussion  has  often 
aroused  admiration.  He  did  not  indulge  in  circumlocutions  or 
euphemisms,  but  was  entirely  frank  and  direct.  There  could  be 
no  mistake  as  to  what  he  thought  and  yet  no  matter  how  plainly 
and  bluntly  he  might  speak  there  was  as  a  rule  no  offense  taken, 
because  it  was  evident  to  every  one  that  what  concerned  him  was 
not  personalities  but  the  principles  involved.  The  American 
Physiological  Society  owes  much  to  him  for  the  sound  policies  and 
wholesome  traditions  which  have  characterized  its  history.  I 
have  not  so  much  direct  knowledge  of  the  influence  exerted  by  Dr. 
Meltzer  in  the  numerous  other  societies  of  which  he  was  a  member. 
In  the  case  of  the  Society  for  Experimental  Biology  and  Medicine 
we  know  that  he  was  its  chief  founder  and  for  many  years  its 
primum  movens — it  was  long  known  familiarly  among  scientific 
men  as  the  Meltzer  Verein.  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  every  or- 
ganization with  which  he  was  connected  his  influence  was  always 
exerted  on  the  side  of  the  highest  scientific  ideals — -no  other  position 
was  possible  for  him.  He  was  high-minded,  courageous,  sincere 
and  optimistic.  Age  oftentimes  lays  a  stiffening  hand  upon  the 
scientific  worker,  causing  him  to  shrink  from  the  laborious  routine 
of  research,  but  with  Meltzer  there  was  never  any  indication  of 
weariness  or  sense  of  failure.  In  spite  of  much  ill-health  and 
physical  suffering  in  his  later  years  he  was  full  of  hope  and  energy 
and  determination  in  the  pursuit  of  his  scientific  ideals  and  prob- 
lems. Death  came  to  him,  as  he  would  have  chosen,  while  in 
his  study  and  at  his  work.  He  was  a  good  and  faithful  servant 
in  the  cause  of  medical  research.  Rewards  came  to  him  in  the 
form  of  academic  honors  and  membership  in  the  most  important 
medical  and  scientific  societies,  but  I  am  confident  that  he  found 
his  greatest  recompense  in  the  joy  of  the  work  and  in  the  affec- 
tionate appreciation  of  his  many  scientific  friends. 


The  place  of  Dr.  Meltzer  in  American  medicine. 

By   WILLIAM   H.    WELCH. 

It  seems  as  though  every  side  of  Dr.  Meltzer's  life  and  work 
has  been  already  touched  upon.  There  is  little  I  can  add.  At  the 
same  time  I  should  regret  very  much  not  to  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  coming  here  tonight  and  paying  my  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  one  whom  I  have  held  dear  ever  since  the  beginning  of  our  ac- 
quaintance, which  dates  from  Dr.  Meltzer's  arrival  in  this  country 
in  1883.  The  bond  that  brought  us  together  was  one  already  re- 
fered  to ;  we  were  both  pupils  of  Kronecker,  I  at  an  earlier  time  than 
Meltzer,  when  Kronecker  was  assistant  to  Ludwig  in  Leipzig.  I 
had  the  good  fortune  of  coming  under  the  influence  of  Kronecker 
and  enjoying  a  friendship  which  continued  until  his  death.  Every- 
one who  had  the  opportunity  of  working  with  him,  loved  him. 
He  took  a  special  and  permanent  interest  in  all  of  his  pupils. 

When  Meltzer  came,  or  even  before  he  came,  I  received  a 
letter  from  Kronecker  informing  me  that  Meltzer  was  contemplat- 
ing coming  to  this  country,  and  inquiring  whether  it  would  be 
possible  for  him  to  secure  some  academic  position.  If  Dr.  Meltzer 
desired  to  secure  an  academic  position  when  he  came  here,  he 
was  soon  disillusioned  when  he  saw  what  the  conditions  at  that 
time  really  were. 

Occasionally  Meltzer  would  pour  out  his  heart,  and  I  have 
had  a  letter  from  him  within  the  year,  a  very  intimate  one,  giving 
the  circumstances  of  his  drawing  out  from  his  early  environment. 
He  describes  in  a  very  graphic  way  the  small  city  in  Russia  where 
he  lived  with  his  family  circle,  a  circle  of  very  orthodox  Jews 
with  a  remarkable  love  of  learning  but  at  the  same  time  a  very 
restricted  horizon.  There  is  no  little  pathos,  and  some  romance 
which  I  hardly  feel  free  to  tell  here,  of  the  circumstances  which 
led  him,  under  the  particular  influence  of  one  individual,  to  leave 
his  home  and  go  to  Koenigsberg  there  to  enter  into  another  life, 
another  spirit,  another  world  of  thought. 


38  Memorial  Number. 

He  came  to  this  country  in  1883  with  an  admirable  training 
in  medicine  but  with  his  interests  centered  in  experimental  physi- 
ology and  particularly  in  that  field  of  experimental  physiology 
represented  by  Kronecker.  Although  a  pupil  in  the  DuBois 
laboratory,  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  the  character  of  DuBois' 
work  was  the  one  in  which  Meltzer  was  trained  or  which  especially 
attracted  him.  He  arrived  here  with  a  letter  from  Kronecker  and 
appeared  in  the  little  laboratory  where  I  had  been  for  four  or 
five  years  after  my  return  from  Germany — first  one  room,  then 
finally  three  rooms  in  the  old  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College. 
I  was  delighted  to  have  him.  I  recall  that  about  that  time  Dr. 
Lange,  the  surgeon,  was  working  in  the  laboratory  before  he  had 
established  himself  in  practice,  and  I  could  not  give  Meltzer  a 
separate  room.  He  had  merely  a  corner  in  the  laboratory  and  he 
was  a  faithful  attendant  there.  He  came  every  day  as  I  recall  it, 
usually  in  the  afternoons,  and  there  we  undertook  and  published 
together  a  little  piece  of  research,  Meltzer 's  independent  work 
practically.  I  never  quite  followed  him  in  some  of  the  broader 
views  he  subsequently  elaborated  and  based  upon  that  work  as  to 
the  importance  of  vibratory  movements  in  living  matter.  In  that 
apparently  detached  kind  of  study  he  had  a  breadth  of  view  some- 
what philosophically  tempered. 

That  association  which  was  a  great  delight  to  me  lasted  one 
year.  He  then  moved  to  Dr.  Prudden's  laboratory.  Dr.  Prudden 
and  I  had  started  our  laboratories  at  about  the  same  time.  Those 
laboratories  were  then  practically  the  only  ones  in  New  York  where 
anyone  who  desired  to  do  any  kind  of  biological  or  medical  labora- 
tory work,  could  come.  There  can  be  no  greater  contrast  than  the 
conditions  in  those  very  modest  little  laboratories  and  the  splendid 
equipment  of  today.  This  is  possibly  a  good  illustration  of  the 
"lowlands"  of  those  days  as  compared  to  the  "heights"  of  today, 
and  no  small  influence  in  bringing  this  about  was  that  of  Meltzer's. 
But  although  working  for  a  time  in  the  laboratory  of  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons,  most  of  his  research  was  done  in  his  own 
little  house,  often  late  at  night. 

I  would  like  to  emphasize  what  I  think  is  the  marvel  of  Melt- 
zer's life  and  work,  that  remarkable  and  almost  unique  combina- 
tion of  active  medical  practice  with  the  cultivation  of  a  particular 


Place  of  Dr.  Meltzer  in  American  Medicine.         39 

science,  experimental  physiology  by  laboratory  methods.  There 
have  been  physicians,  especially  in  their  younger  and  lean  years, 
with  scientific  inclinations  who  have  done  excellent  work  in  the 
laboratory  but  only  for  a  time;  ultimately  they  were  practitioners- 
There  have  been  practitioners,  as  for  example  S.  Weir  Mitchell, 
who  have  continued  to  be  interested  in  experimental  work,  but 
after  all  they  are  not  comparable  to  Dr.  Meltzer,  who  combined 
in  an  extraordinary  manner  the  life  of  the  practitioner  and  the 
life  of  the  real  specialist  in  experimental  physiology.  It  is  worth 
pausing  to  consider  this  because  it  is  a  remarkable  phenemenon. 
Meltzer  must  have  exerted  no  little  restraint  not  to  allow  himself 
to  become  so  immersed  in  practice  as  to  cause  him  to  withdraw 
from  his  scientific  activities. 

The  first  ten  years  after  his  arrival  were  years  in  which  he 
produced  something  nearly  every  year.  There  were  some  years, 
1884-85-86,  of  relatively  little  productivity.  In  general  the 
period  from  1883  to  the  early  nineties  of  the  last  century  was  one 
in  which  he  was  establishing  himself  in  a  comfortable  practice ;  he 
desired  no  more.  He  had  to  make  his  livelihood  and  this  was  the 
only  congenial  way  open  to  him,  but  he  did  not  allow  himself, 
even  during  these  early  years,  to  be  withdrawn  from  scientific 
interests  and  work.  It  shows  a  remarkable  loyalty  to  an  ideal  and 
a  very  extraordinary  enthusiasm  and  tenacity  of  purpose  to  have 
accomplished  this  under  conditions  apparently  so  adverse.  Once 
established  in  a  comfortable  practice,  his  scientific  interests  bore 
upon  his  practice  and  his  practice  bore  upon  the  character  of  his 
scientific  progress,  as  has  been  already  pointed  out. 

Dr.  Howell  has  given  us  an  admirable  characterization  of 
Meltzer  as  the  experimental  physiologist  who  occupies  by  prefer- 
ence that  border  land  between  laboratory  and  practice,  a  type 
quite  incomprehensible  to  the  ordinary  practitioner. 

Meltzer  was  one  of  the  few  earlier  physicians  in  this  country 
whose  practice  was  based  upon  physiological  training,  aptitude  and 
interest.  S.  Weir  Mitchell  was  another,  although  his  interests 
became  mainly  clinical.  If  Dr.  Graham  Lusk  had  not  already  re- 
ferred to  it,  I  was  going  to  speak  of  his  father  also,  as  another  man 
who,  in  his  special  field  of  obstetrics,  founded  upon  physiological 
study  and  interest,  made  admirable  the  work  of  the  scientific 
practitioner  in  this  field. 


40  Memorial  Number. 

In  those  early  years  when  Meltzer  came  to  New  York,  the 
leading  physicians  were  Jacobi,  Clark,  the  elder  Flint,  Delafield 
and  Janeway,  the  scientific  basis  of  whose  work  was  mainly  patho- 
logical anatomy.  From  this  school  of  pathological  anatomists 
most  admirable  practitioners  have  come;  but  today  we  recognize 
that  the  study  of  function  is  essential  to  make  the  good  doctor, 
and  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  Meltzer  typified  this  idea  when 
scarcely  any  one  else  in  the  country  did  so. 

In  the  early  nineties  Meltzer's  productivity  amounted  to 
many  papers  a  year,  and  so  continued  to  the  end.  It  is  interesting 
to  consider  why.  In  the  first  place  he  was  in  easier  circumstances, 
not  uninterested  in  his  practice,  but  easier  in  his  circumstances  so 
far  as  time  to  give  to  his  work  went.  Then  it  was  a  time  too,  when 
there  were  great  advances  in  scientific  and  medical  education. 
Laboratories  were  established  in  various  schools  in  the  country.  I 
wish  to  emphasize  also  the  formation  of  special  societies  such  as 
the  Association  of  American  Physicians,  devoted  to  the  various 
specialties,  particularly  the  Physiological  Society,  where  Meltzer 
played  the  very  important  part  indicated  by  Dr.  Howell.  At 
this  time  too,  there  came  the  establishment  of  journals  devoted 
solely  to  the  publication  of  technical  research.  They  not  only 
provided  a  much  needed  means  for  publication,  but  they  were 
positively  stimulating  to  the  production  of  research.  The  first  of 
these  was  the  Journal  of  Experimental  Medicine  started  in  1896, 
soon  followed  by  the  Journal  of  Physiology  and  then  by  others. 
The  organization  of  these  special  societies,  the  new  media  of 
publications,  gave  Meltzer  his  opportunity,  and  how  well  he  used 
it,  how  much  a  part  of  this  development  he  was,  has  been  indicated 
here  tonight. 

And  now,  just  a  little  more  about  his  relation  to  the  clinical 
side.  He  represented  the  physiological  type  of  physician.  He 
was,  I  understand  from  competent  sources,  really  an  accomplished 
physician,  doing  full  justice  to  his  patients.  His  influence  on 
clinical  medicine  however,  is  not  to  be  measured  by  his  accom- 
plishments merely  as  a  physician.  He  was  never  weary  of  im- 
pressing especially  upon  the  younger  generation  of  physicians,  that 
the  field  of  clinical  research  is  just  as  interesting,  as  rewarding,  as 
important  and  just  as  capable  of  scientific  advancement  by  re- 


Place  of  Dr.  Meltzer  in  American  Medicine.        41 

search  as  that  of  physiology  or  the  other  branches  of  medicine  to 
which  the  term  "science"  is  sometimes,  although  erroneously, 
limited. 

Meltzer  realized  that  it  is  the  younger  generation  that  is 
especially  worth  working  for  and  trying  to  influence.  He  made  no 
mistake.  It  is  delightful  to  see  so  many  of  the  younger  men  here 
tonight,  because  I  know  they  are  drawn  by  their  affection  and 
admiration  for  that  man  who  impressed  his  ideas  upon  them  not 
only  by  precept,  but  by  example.  In  this  way,  I  think,  he  has 
exerted  a  potent  influence  upon  clinical  medicine,  and  I  question 
whether  it  would  have  been  possible  for  a  man  devoting  himself 
solely  to  laboratory  work  to  have  done  this. 

His  great  opportunity  came  when  he  was  chosen  for  the  head- 
ship of  the  division  of  Physiology  and  Pharmacology  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute.  It  was  a  natural  choice.  The  institute  was  in 
its  early  days  and  it  was  extremely  important  that  the  particular 
problems  selected  for  study  should  fall  within  a  certain,  at  that 
time,  well-defined  group  of  subjects.  Here  was  a  man  who  was  a 
genuine  physiologist,  recognized  by  his  compeers,  but  whose  in- 
terests were  largely  concerned  with  problems  having  relation  to 
practical  medicine,  although  he  would  have  been  the  last  man  in 
the  world  to  advocate  that  practical  application  of  results  should 
be  a  guiding  principle  in  discovery.  He  represented  that  combina- 
tion of  quality  and  direction  of  interest  in  scientific  medicine  which 
made  him  the  ideal  man  for  the  new  division  of  physiology  and 
pharmacology.  He  found  here  his  great  opportunity  for  his 
splendid  work.  He  was  brought  into  contact  with  young  men 
and  he  helped  train  them  here. 

As  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Scientific  Directors  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute,  I  wish  on  this  occation,  to  express  on  behalf  of  all 
my  colleagues,  and  I  am  sure  I  speak  also  for  all  the  scientific 
workers  at  the  Institute,  our  sense  of  personal  loss,  our  very 
grateful  appreciation  of  Meltzer's  life  and  work  and  our  inexpres- 
sible debt  to  him  for  his  many  years  of  devoted  and  fruitful  service. 
I  am  glad  to  have  had  the  privilege  of  saying  these  few  words  in 
memory  of  one  whose  character  I  greatly  admired  and  whose 
friendship  I  cherished.  It  is  well  for  all  of  us  to  come  and  pay 
our  tribute  to  the  memory  of  such  a  man;  to  recall  his  worthy 


42  Memorial  Number. 

qualities  of  heart,  mind  and  character,  his  large  and  enduring 
influence,  his  accomplishments  and  his  genius.  But  after  all,  it 
is  still  better  for  us,  and  that  is  what  he  would  wish,  that  we 
leave  here  animated  by  his  spirit  and  by  his  desire  to  cultivate 
scientific  medicine  and  to  serve  our  fellow  men. 


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^^^   Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
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KL54.M49 
Sol 
1921 
Society  for  experimental 

biology  and  medicine.  New  York. 

Memorial  number  for  Samuel  James 
Meltaer.        


UK  a     i9.:B&U.BlNggRY 


